MALACAÑANG on Monday called out the foreign media to be impartial and balance in reporting the Duterte administration’s intensified campaign against drugs.
“We ask the foreign media to present both sides of the story when reporting on the Philippine war on drugs,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement.
“We, in government, including the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies, would be more than willing to help in unearthing the truth and presenting the facts about the drug menace to the public,” he added.
Andanar’s statement came on the heels of the report by the foreign media outlet New York Times about the drug war in the Philippines.
Andanar said the December 7 article published by the New York Times, which was entitled “They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals,” was “totally one-sided.”
“[The article] depicts the Philippines as the Wild, Wild West in this part of the world. This is farthest from the truth,” the President’s communication head said.
Daniel Berehulak, who wrote the article, noted that about 2,000 people “had been slain at the hands of the police alone” since President Rodrigo Duterte waged his “bloody and chaotic” campaign agains drugs.
Berehulak said that in his 35 days in the Philippines, he had been able to cover 57 murder victims at 41 sites.
Andanar said Berehulak should have checked his facts about the drug-related deaths before blaming the administration over the killings of suspected drug personalities.
“If the reporter had bothered to check the facts of the 3,000 deaths under investigation by the Philippine National Police, only 1,080 are drug-related. The rest are murder and homicide cases perpetrated by gunmen which the Philippine National Police (PNP) is now investigating, the results of which will be made public in due time,” he said.
Echoing Duterte’s earlier pronouncement, Andanar said: “To our police officers and other officials, do your job and you will have the unwavering support of the Office of the President. I will be with you all the way. Abuse your authority and there will be hell to pay, for you will have become worse than criminality itself.”
Andanar stressed that the extrajudicial killings in the country were not part of the President’s directive to the police in addressing the drug menace.
“The police have nothing to do with these killings. The President has not given any direct order for them to kill drug dealers and users on mere suspicion,” Andanar said.
“Police operatives only neutralize those who violently resist arrest, or else they could be the ones who end up dead. Thus, the President’s marching order to the police is that they have the right to defend themselves when their lives are endangered,” he added. (Sunnex)